Sunday, 18 September 2011

We headed to Bromsgrove for the weekend, it had a Adams Derby Qualifier which is a nice final for young dogs if can qualify. It is power and speed, so the first section is contacts and maximum spread and long jump. The speed is poles and jumping. Then crikey I missed Dixie and Marc's run, as our runs clashed. Bummer, not only did I miss them run, they did a good 'un' and won the qualifier. No mean feat for Dixie, who must be one of the smallest 'large' dogs in KC agility.

But look at Dixie, she says she born to pose too
:-) She is now 21 months and is well cute.

All the guys did good, but this is Dixie's time to hog a blog posting as I know it is usually my guys that I write or should I put rave about?

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Well, the Rivioli was not gonna be left behind at Wyre, and I was so pleased to get her through to the final too. I don't like to leave a dog behind, in any sense. I want to get her through to the finals at much as Zev. Heres the jumping round (the twiddle being entirely my fault - wrong directional cue):-

However, what has been looming and despite my best efforts I have not cracked her aframe performance. Her see-saw is good and her dog walk performance has really come on. This is the agility qualifying round

With the aframe, the stutter has come back affecting this final and the one at Prestbury - it is so so frustrating.....

I am now conscious of it, can you imagine having such a gorgeous dog, that has one performance issue. It is like a loathsome acne spot on one's face!!!! So at Wyre I made the decision to devote from Oct to Dec 11, to retraining the aframe and the dogwalk. I even declined a call up to the semis, for the same reason. We have improved so much performance wise in other aspects I just need to sort this issue out.

No semis. No WAO tryouts. Yes to developing a contact that suits Rivi and enables us enjoy it even more. And who knows a side benefit of being a more successful partnership?

Rivi aka Nedlo Drives Me Wild - AWG

Nuts aka Woodsorrel Drives Me Nuts

Storm aka Storm's A Brewing

My boy, who taught me so much. Thank you and miss you. Took me from Elementary to Novice, in his final year of agility was second overall for the Novice Classic and finished third in the final - DINAS 2004. In Obedience Storm took me from Pre-Beginner to 'A'

Wings aka Woodsorrel Bright Wings

Marc & Wings, a journey indeed - came to us with more baggage than a airport luggage conveyor belt, not that you would know that now :-) Grade 6 in agility with one agility win to Grade 7. Won the KC Novice Cup 2007 and Qualified Crufts Team 2011. Now retired to watch TV and herd to her hearts content.

Raz aka Woodsorrel Crazy Nut

Marc's crazy sweet dog – Obedience C only and Grade 7 - Championship level in Agility. Raz had floaters in his eyes that cause blurring since birth, which build up and cause the retinal detachment. At 6 he finally became blind in one eye and worsening poor vision in the other due to retinal detachment, which meant he was retired at 6 years old. It is amazing and a testament to Marc's handling that Raz did as well as he did. The problem is hereditary / CEA. Raz also has the occasional 'fit' and intolerant of any cereal ie wheat/maize.

Tri aka No spills Tri Thrills

Marc's girl - sorely missed - one fantastic season going senior and to the semi's before being retired at 3 years old - due to chroic hd/back and heart problems. That one year was a golden summer of agility, watching them run together was simply thrilling. Her previous owners had brought her from a pet shop, fortunately they rehomed her to us when she was a around a year old.